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Published: April 2nd 2008
Any familiar faces dad??
Grandad Sean himself right at the middle of the back row. Bridget too. Nanna Ireland.. and many more. whos the blonde i say hahahaCurrent Mood: I'm Running the Gauntlet!
Waking up in that Backpackers in Brisbane wasn’t the best. It was full of Chinese guys who love to chat and play with there gadgets etc etc ALL NIGHT LONG. The room was boiling and after spending the night with Cacca I had a slight hangover. Myself and kim were sharing a bed and with the obscene heat in the room I couldn’t wait to get out of there.
We both got up pretty early to get me to the airport. So saying my see you laters to Kim I jumped the train to the airport where to be honest was swiftly checked in and on board ready to go. Virgin Blue are a pretty good airline like! Anyway not an hour later of being in the air I was down on the tarmac of Sydney and after collecting my Bags was out and looking for my cousin Greg who I met a few years back in the UK. Basicly the long and short of it says that my whole trip was a little to do with these guys being here. 26 years ago my Great uncle Bernard emigrated out here with his
Wife and kids in the search of a better life. 26 years later I was here to visit my long lost family of cousins and such. Bernard was a traveller back in the day when it was a difficult thing to do. Before the days of the lonely planet and dot to dot travel. The adventure is still here but the uncertainty of travel these days is probably not as evident. Well not once your on the road anyway. Most people who have never done it think its crazy buts it’s basically doing the same stuff as you would do at home somewhere else. You work for a flight like a family work all year for a mortgage and a holiday. The only difference is you do everything short term unless you like somewhere enough to settle for a while or need to put a few months in to settle a debt! Bernard did it the hard way with his wife (my aunty Liz) then emigrated. My dad told me the stories as a kid and then a teen, I got the taste for yearly holidays abroad, Met Han who was also keen on doing something elsewhere, went to Thailand
then the rest was history and in this blog. Look at me pluggin my writings hahaha I wish Travelblog.org would highlight me in there faves especially since the press coverage in my tiwi blogs. Tiwicccbbbccbb???!?!?! How are you mate? Long story short: I couldn’t wait to spend some time here with my family that I didn’t really know!
Anyway I got out side and Greg was there waiting for me. In true style and as its always been since ive known him we drove straight to a bottle shop where he treated me to a few for the travel out to the western suburbs of st Marys where unbeknown to me was on our way for a good few beers with uncle Bernard. Ahh it was great to see him. I met all the lads in the Pub that I was told my cousin Chris from home worked in once upon a time and was then demanded to take the trip to Bernard to meet Liz. She had said she would be gutted if I didn’t meet her on my first night in Sydney! So pumped with beer we were set. We shot back to Gregs where I met
his Girlfriend Sam (who Is a ledgend) and we all got straight down to the bottle shop where I bought a slab to greet the family with. What a night. We all got blind drunk. Liz cooked up a storm and I was asked to stay! Passed out late was woke early and again it all started. I woke to the sizzle of irish sausages and Bacon with the typical irish extra of white pudding and by 11am was in the pub with Bernard again! This went on for two days after before I moved into Gregs and got onto the Job hunt. Ahh it seemed to take for ever to get anywhere.. Sydney is a pain for finding work. You need a ticket for everything. Its qualifications and health and safety gone mad. I thought England was bad. Sydney takes the piss. After a few days of flapping about the city and taking in the sights in between looking through agency after agency Kim was ready to come and meet me. So I took a few days out of the job hunt to play around the city with her. Greg and Sam were kind enough to put us both
The Family.
A few key figures in my life. hows that dad. have a good look at pics further on tell me who you can see! up at their house and Kim came over to meet Bern and Liz soon enough.
But from here Sydney became a tedious mess of traipsing back and forward from town in the hunt of unsuccessful jobs obtaining ticket after ticket and sending out tonnes of resumes. Kim found a house which was cool for her and I got spats of work in the decorating game with my cousins firm here in Sydney. So floating by, Christmas approached pretty fast. The plan for Christmas was to go to Bernards where we had a great few days of eating and drinking before the inevitable back to the job hunt routine. I was over Sydney but loved my Christmas day bash. The week after Christmas wasn’t spent doing much. We all basically sat about catching up with the family or my self with kim. New year came and 2008 was celebrated with Brummie Katie from Dougies backpackers and lewy for a brief minute at a bus stop ‘The Arse’, though he did leave me a box of goon!!. My self and Kim went to meet them at a vantage point in St Leonard’s park where we got a great view of the
harbour and the firework display. Two days later I was back to the streets.
Through my Good friend Laura from Wales who also was in Sydney I got a number for promotion work in and around metropolitan Sydney. On going for the interview I was approached by a guy trying to sell me a sign up for charity based company in NSW. Stating that I was in search of work and not able to pay anything out I got a number which led to a second interview that day. I would become the pain in the arse that chases you down the street in the attempt to make you give me your money. I was an official employee for the Charity… ‘The Cancer Council’.
So the following Monday I finally had work. I was in paid training on the Monday and out to the streets on the Tuesday. It was good fun. Its all about having a little bit of a flirt with the girls, goofing around with the lads whilst making them aware of the affects cancer is having on hundreds of thousand of Australians and others worldwide. So there I was pitching away making a few
sign ups a week. All was great but the industry is a cut throat one to say the least. As we are paid agents the targets needed to be met in order to pay the very basic salary. After four weeks of standing around the streets seeing good friends come and get sacked not to long after I was ready for the off. I got my name down with an agency and awaited some grafting type work.
In the mean time whilst working with the cancer council my weekends were spent with Greg and Sam! Greg landed a great job spray painting in the city on the navy boats and if he would work a weekend myself and Sam would head over to the infamous Bondi Beach. We would basicly get up as early as we could and head over there splashing around in the waves and getting abit of body surfing in. it was a great crack. One of the times we went down I had been upto the pub to meet Greg who would occasionally come down to meet us. On leaving the pub and walking down for a few futher waves I saw the Cockney Bin
man himself. Richard from port douglas!! Not seeing me as he was plastered coming out of the sea I legged it and tackled him into the water hahaha jumping up ready for the scrap he saw me and shouted ‘Nick the CURL’ with is better than Nicholarse the Greek as the lads would call me at home hahahaha. Straight away he was like ‘weve got a room in our gaff do you wanna move in?’. I was Mustard!! ‘Yes mate see you in the week’. So without further ado I said my good byes to Greg and Sam to get my own place at last over at Bondi!! Travelling to work and through Sydney all of a sudden didn’t seem as bad now. At least I could play in the water after work everynight!
Not long after moving to Bondi Kim decided she was to head home bless her so guttingly saying goodbye to her I cracked on with the grind of the streets but as I said earlier put an end to it pretty sharp! I met a good gang of mates over at Bondi. We would spend the weekends getting involved in BBQ’s for birthdays Kevs being
a great one around at Tamarama bay and sessions in the house. Anne Came to Sydney too which was mint. We got a big weekend set up at the house where a lot of the dougies crowd joined us. Lewy came over from Cronulla which is a southern suburb and Richard got his Lads ‘Bill and Ted’ (Will and Ed) over. They had also been at dougies but I never met them. Annes mate Nikki came over who a few months later set tickets up for a Jack Johnson Gig at centennial park which would be eagerly awaited. And of course all of the lads I now class as good ones were about to add to the numbers. Irish Mark, Kev (also from Dougies), Mic, and jock Jamie all contributed to wicked times. For Six weeks we had a blast. In the later weeks I set up a job over at Manly beach Land scaping for a Lady and her Husband Margarette and Greham. The remainder of my time at Bondi was based around a lot of travelling to and from work and grafting my tits off.
The lease on the House came to an end so looking at
my job and the travel I decided to move over to Manly to be more available For Marg. So to the backpackers I went. It was strange to be back in a dorm but luckily I didn’t have to put up with too many idiots at night like. I actually met some bang on guys. The English boys Josh and Sam and Nick were a right good crack. The lovely Lizzie from Holland was refreshing and the entirety of the Scottish gang... Greg, Jade,Vic and the Irish boys that followed them were a screem. Cheers! I must say hi to the lovely Jen and Sarah too!
So the Job up at Deewhy was a goodun. I was basicly Margs handy man but it was a good laugh like. I had loads of things to do for her but there was a tonne of prep work for Bob the Builder Brett. They had me excavating pipes, setting in drainage systems, kangowin cliff faces, painting, Gardening, footing preparations to which Scottish Greg came out to help with and tonnes of planting! It was nice to be let have a go and be payed as a bonus. The job was ten minutes
from the backpackers so I got to get home earlier and get to know a few good guys really well. One of my mad moments led me to buying a new pair of roller boots from a skate shop around the corner. Hahah how much fun that was. Myself and Greg got out on them one night after a mob load of beers to which we skated from the hostel to a 7/11 where we emptied the pie counter of its $50 worth of pasties and pies before hitting the streets for some hard core Skating. Oh my god it was a laugh. We were trying to do all of the things we used to do in the youth hahaha nearly broke my arse many a time hahahah Greg lad you’re a ledgend!
Well the final two weeks I had planned in Sydney were going to be fun! My idea was to leave the week after St Patricks Day on the 24th in a car with the lads to travel across to Perth to do all of the southern highlights to include in my trip. But unfortunately with debts needing to be cleared also I was concerned for the
amount such an adventure would cost in the long run. Sorry Lads. So working for the next two weeks in manly was literally to get my plans into action another way.
Working up at Margs one day I got talking to her for some advice on doing the things I wanted to do on a budget tour sort of deal and great as she is, she went in and came back to me with all sorts of ideas for the likes of the great ocean road and that sort of thing. Then the other plans of getting there fell into place with finding some super cheap deals online for flights from Melbourne to Perth. I already had a ticket to Melbourne that I picked up in port Douglas so with a tinkle of the bell and a call to Greyhound I would be leaving in the night of the 23rd which was Easter Sunday. At last I felt I could rest and stop worrying about my situation. Mid week Marg and Graham treated me to a meal down in a place called Balmoral which was absolutely wicked. Id been eating Corn Flakes all week so a monster Plate of
whoop whhop
Me Jade and Sam Fish and Chips went down a storm. Thank you guys for everything you really Dug me out of a Japanese Garden!! (hehehe) x
So without further ado I got back into my work for a hard but relaxing couple of weeks having both coming weekend off.
On the 15th of March it was on… I mentioned that Young Canadian Nikki had got us tickets for the Gig of my life. Mr Jack Johnson himself was in Sydney. Oh yes. I missed it back in the UK due to illness, but had it rubbed in my face on how good he was by Han bless her Socks. (Was Great seeing you about the place again in Sydney Hunny you keep well and will catch you somewhere else in this big old world I’m sure. It would be sweet)
On the other side of the world on Saturday morning I was off to Dance my ass off. I met Nikki in Town for beers before heading in to the Gig with a bunch of Ozzies that straight away got snagged on the gates by the drug dogs. You must understand that when these types of bands come to town
the chilled atmosphere brings on the doobies. So in and busting for the loo we shot across to the toilets for a pitt stop before getting Beers and finding a perch for the Day light ours some way back from the stage. When the beers had gone the courage of 10 came so off we wobbled through the crowds to get right up there in the front lines. Man the gig was a blinder. A few acts came on including G-Love and a great Aboriginal Dance that really made me miss the lads on the Island but scared me a little ahahaha it was a serious act.
Then it went off… JJ himself walks up strumming a tune and the whole park went berserk. It was great. I got to here every single song bar one that I wanted to hear with the constant reminder from Nikki that I still didn’t know any of his new tracks. Poo Head!!
Then the night wrapped up with some of the mixed acts he performed with the guys mentioned earlier. Man I had a great time. From the gig we went Drinking in Paddington which is rammed with Gay bars so that
was a good laff and knackered from the day we headed back to crash out. The plan for the next Day was simple. It was Sunday and the day that the Irish would begin the celebrations for Paddies day. Where else should I spend my time But over at Uncle Bernard’s and Aunty Liz’s for some of that Irish spirit. We had a blast. Greg and Sam got back from Perth so we got to catch up a heap and we just generally drunk ourselves into the floor whilst listening to Bern and his Beatles Knowledge. The following morning unfortunately I had to head back to Manly for work but is was the Down hill run for me. My last week on the Shovel.
Back at Manly for 10 and in work I got stuck in for a good week. I basically hung around with the Scottish gang in my spare time and got a fair bit of sleep in. the later part of the week approached and I got Greg to come to work so he could replace me when I moved on. We Dug, and dug some more for two days before finally getting to relax.
That Friday Night would be my final Friday with the guys. So we all got sorted and went down for beers at the Manly Warf which I recommend to everybody. We had a blast but Being Good Friday the bar closed at 10 so we all went back to the digs for more beers and some see you later hugs from other guys! I got pen all over me from Jen and Sarah and it was that point we got out on the skates. As said before.. Greg, Jade and Vic.. Thanx for a great few weeks guys! Sarah and the Lovely Jen.. stop riding bikes down hostel stairs! Love you girlies!
Saturday and Sunday were spent with the family. On the Saturday I spent the majority of the Day with Liz and Bern popping to the Pub with Bern for the sat afternoon and getting our bellies filled on the evening. On the Sunday which would be my last day in Sydney Greg and Sam, Gil and Jeff and Lisa (Steweys missus) came by with all of the kids to say goodbye to me which was great. I didn’t get to spend as much time as id hoped
to spend with the guys whilst in Sydney but the times I did were magical. Thanks so much to you all I really mean it. I will be back to see you all before I leave Australia!
So guys you will all have noticed that follow my blogs that is, ive been a little slack in sending you my stories. I had a comment from Danielle (my little sister) on my blog the other day saying the current pictures are boring so these last two days have been for you and the other Nippers im missing too much. Love you all guys and I will promise to keep on form with my stories from now on.
As always……. Love from a brummy
Im off to Melbourne now to See me old Mucka Lewy, Rob from Darwin, Katie from Dougies and Rachel too, and last but not least the motly crew from Laos… Azza, Carly and Naomi!
Until next time guys
Niki xxx Miss you kids xx
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Neri
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Love all the pictures and especially the old family pics. Thanks for keeping us so updated with such good blogs. Miss ya buddie x